


Flight of the Scarlet Storm

by JaybieJarrett



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 19:38:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4637700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaybieJarrett/pseuds/JaybieJarrett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The crew of the Scarlet Storm, an imperfect family united in piracy, has to pull together to compete with other ships for dominance over the sky and space. Meanwhile military ships from planets all over try to crack down on piracy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flight of the Scarlet Storm

Piracy was the Toyaka family business. It ran in their blood.

They lived on the planet Tortuga, a smallish planet (just missing dwarf planet status) which was a lawless refuge for pirates, because the people who made their business of colonizing planets decided to take their sweet time on it. First come, first serve, suckers!

 Tortuga, being full of pirates was, naturally a pretty rough place to grow up. You had to have guts, skills, and quick reflexes to get by, and more than that to really make it. You also had to have people to back you up. A crew. A team.

That was exactly why the Toyaka family believed so hard in sticking together. Loyalty to your family was king for one thing. “Blood is blood” as Great Uncle Uriah once explained….or maybe it was Great Uncle Jenya….or Great Uncle Hori.

Great Uncle Someone with the fake leg. Who knows, really?

Anyway they had a system for how they did things. The Toyaka house, set in one of the planet’s massively oversized trees, housed the parts of the family that chose to stay and keep down the fort. Aunt Kagami was the captain of the family ship, and the technical matriarch of the family, but while she was away she elected someone to stand as head of the household, as much as it pained her to relinquish that little bit of control.

She got something greater, control over the crew of the Scarlet Storm as the Captain, a position handed down to her from her father. Over her two brothers, as she always liked to remind everyone. She captained their family ship, with her sons by her side.  They said she once had a husband or two but they couldn’t keep up with her.  But then again, the same could be said of all of her siblings.  The call of the sky-faring life was far more powerful than any desire to settle down

*********

Shiro was the son of the Storm’s quartermaster.  He didn’t recall who his mother was, the only mother figure he ever knew was Aunt Kagami, and the many aunts that raised him in her absence. He was smaller than most of the rest of his family, even his sister was more stout and bulky than he was, which in this family was a point of pride.

  For many years of his life while the ship was out at sale, Shiro never saw his father.  He heard stories and had an idea in his mind that he built up, like a figure from the stories he heard on Tortuga.  He (and his sister, but mostly him) built up the idea to a more romantic, idealized figure.    

He imagined his father to be perfect.  But perfect was far from what he got. 

When the family returned home, returned to a great feast from the rest of the family, Shiro rushed to meet them, expecting to find the grand figure from his dreams.  Instead, he was met with a cantankerous and nasty tempered figure who was more interested in ‘alone time’ and ‘brandy’ than him or his sister.

More interested in arguing with his brother than his _children._

It was like they were a second thought-no not even that.  A _last_ thought. . He could understand not being the most important thing in his father’s life, maybe.  But not important at all?   The disappointment was crushing enough to kill his appetite completely at what was supposed to be an amazing feast that he had been looking forward to all week.

There was a whole buffet of fish and Shiro felt too crummy to eat any of it.

He spent a lot of the night avoiding everybody as much as he could, because it would be downright embarrassing if anyone caught him shedding a tear. 

The next afternoon he overheard his father and Kagami talking.

“- he’s been waiting all this time to see you.  Really can’t you spare him a _moment_?” 

“I might if he didn’t keep getting in my way and making a great loud brat of himself.”

Shiro bit his lip and channeled his feelings into kicking something. 

“He only wants your attention.”   He pulled himself up not wanting to hear anymore of this conversation, he felt miserable enough.  However he didn’t get far enough when he heard what his aunt said next.  “The two of you will have plenty of time to bond when we set sail again.”

What?  Shiro want right back up to the wall and pressed his ear against it.

“No.  He’s too small…‘e’ll _never_ make it out there.” Was his father actually concerned for him? 

“Oh of course he will.  It’s not as if Dex was much bigger at that age, and he does fine enough.” 

“No, I’m telling you.  He’s a little thing, like his mother was.  You saw how _she_ turned out, didn’t ya?” His father insisted sounding very bitter.  Shiro felt as if his heart had leapt up to his throat.  Nobody before now had ever mentioned anything to him about his mother.  If anything it always felt like they avoided talking about her when he was around.  

“Tosh, please. He’ll be fine.  Just give him a job that will be easy to manage.” Aunt Kagami insisted.  “And he’s still very young.  There’s plenty of time for him to grow into a properly-sized boy.” 

Shiro kept listening but they moved away from the subject, his father uneasy and his aunt certain that he’d make it.  Nothing more was said about his mother. Not then, and not ever again for a very long time.  That moment was the one time in Shiro’s memory that his father ever showed much emotion about it.  From then on his father only pushed him away, and Shiro always wondered if the reason had something to do with his mother. 

 *********

Shiro, along with his sister, and a few first and distant cousins, joined the crew when they set off again.  He was eight years old, and his sister, Ana, was six.  Just old enough to be a cabin boy, Aunt Kagami said. The other children were around their age, Samu, his other cousin was much bigger at only a few years older. 

However Shiro didn’t have much time to stew in bitter jealousy when they were called to attention. Two of the ship’s top officers stood in front of them. Kagami’s sons.  Dex, the first mate was probably as businesslike as a pirate could be.  Bifocal glasses, hair tied back in a neat ponytail, and a coat that looked like an army commander. Akira, the carpenter and ship surgeon was tall, slightly more so than Dex, with a metal prosthetic arm and a carpenter’s apron soaked with splatters of blood.

“Don’t get on his bad side…” The boy next to Shiro muttered. 

Akira chuckled.  “Good lad. As long as we’ve got tha’ out of the way-” Dex shot him a glare.  He cleared his throat.

“Welcome on board.  You all will be in the galley under Donovan, except for you” He nodded to Samu.  “I have a job in mind for you.”  The muscular boy stood tall, looking eager. 

“Ol’ Donovan can take care of training the rest of you sorry lot.” Akira said dismissively.

“But…” Shiro said, “Isn’t he the…..uh”

“The cook, yes.”Akira raised an eyebrow. “Is there a problem?” 

“You mean we’re just going to be stuck in the galley doing _chores_?” Sylvester said loudly.  His sister shot him a glare. 

“Yes”  Dex said, “Is there a problem?”

“Uhhh , _yes_ ” Sylvester said, ignoring her completely, “We won’t see any of the _action_!” 

“Yeah!”  A young girl on the far side of the group yelled.

Akira threw back his head laughing cruelly.  “See some of the action?  Boy, if you got in a proper pirate scrap you’d be dead. All of ya.   Other ‘n that it’s all sailin’ and keepin’ up the boat. I’ll tell ya what though, you boys get a little older and you can run the canon powder with Dai.”

Sylvester bit his tongue, but glowered at Akira. Dex, was also giving Akira a rather uncharitable look.  He cleared his throat. 

“If you don’t mind, Akira, I’ll just take them down to the galley.  You have work to do,” Akira eyed him for a moment, and Shiro took a step back seeing the look in his eye.

‘Really now?”  Shiro felt his sister draw close to him.  Even Sylvester swallowed his word and moved close to his older sister. Even Dex looked like he was starting to regret his words as Akira looked as if he were seriously considering using his tools on his brother’s body.  However before either could do anything, Kagami passed, and gave them both a glance. Akira grunted and left in a huff. “Do want you want, you little bastard.”

When he left Dex shook his head in anger or disgust. He seemed to be in an unpleasant mood as he led the down to the galley. As they descended down the steps Shiro gagged at the smell.  It was as if something had gone rancid, mixed with the smell of sweat.  Ana plugged her nose, and Sylvester muttered “who died?” When they got to the last step, Shiro could see all the places the smell was coming from.  There were pots all over, mess in all corners of the room,

“Ew”

“Donovan!” Dex called out. The sound of snoring stopped and the potbellied figure of their uncle pulled himself up and walked, or waddled over. 

“Oi, whatever happened to proper respect?” He asked, holding back a yawn.  “That’s _uncle_ to you.”  He grabbed a bottle as he passed, and looked them all over.  “Tosh’s boy eh?”  He said as he noticed Shiro. 

“Yes” Dex said impatiently.  “This is Shiro, and his sister Ana, Sylvester and Viola Dobias, and Kazue Shizuya. They’ll be working under you.”  Uncle Donovan took a gulp from his drink and turned behind him.  “LEO!”  A tubby little boy ran out of the room behind the galley. He looked younger than them, and Shiro had never seen him before.  Had he been raised on the ship all this time? “We got more help.” 

The boy looked up at them in excitement, probably relived to finally have someone other than his dad to talk to.  Uncle Donovan looked to Dex. 

“So that it then?” He asked, taking another swig. 

“Yes.” He turned around to leave. “Now if excuse me there are things to be done.” With that, he left, _abandoned_ them, in this stinky trash pit with a bloke who was just downing another bottle.  It wasn’t long after that Shiro felt the ship taking off; when he was tasked to helping clean the galley. 


End file.
